Download Document 9095223

AP World History Reading Assignment 2011-2012
All students are required to read one book of their choice from the list. Students will
write a 2-page (12 font, double-spaced) reflection paper for the book of their choice. You
will be doing this assignment both 1st and 2nd semester, so you must choose a different
region 2nd semester than you do for 1st semester. Refer to your calendar for the due date.
(1st semester=November 28) This paper should be reflective and not just summarize the
author’s work. Be sure to discuss the historical setting and its relevance to history and
evaluate the validity of the author’s plot and/or thesis as it relates to any of the six themes
listed below (you may choose 1 or 2—do not try to do all 6):
1. Impact and interaction among major societies (trade, systems of international
exchange, war and diplomacy)
2. The relationship of change and continuity across the world history periods
covered in the course
3. Impact of technology and demography on people and the environment
(population growth and decline, disease, manufacturing, migrations, agriculture,
weaponry)
4. Systems of social structure and gender structure (comparing major features within and
among societies and assessing change)
5. Cultural and intellectual developments and interactions among and within societies
6. Changes in the functions and structures of states and political identities (political
culture), including the emergence of the nation-state (types of political organization)
All books should be available at the public library, but can be purchased through
Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, or at any bookstore around town.
AFRICA
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
-The story of Okonkwo, an African Ibo, and his struggles to adjust to the changing ways
of British Colonialism
What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response by Bernard
Lewis
-How Islamic civilizations fell from worldwide leadership 5 or 6 centuries ago
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta by Ross Dunn
-70,000 mi. journey in Dar-al-Islam – from Morocco to China and back
Blackhawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden
-American soldiers in Somalia
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
-Autobiography
The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi: A Novel by Arthur Japin
-2 West African princes sent by an Ashanti king to Holland for school in the 1830s
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
-1959 in the Belgian Congo
Nervous Condition Tsitsi Dangarembga,
- Extremely well written first novel by a Zimbabwean woman. A coming of age story set
in the mid 20th century.
The Story of Hausa Slavery and Islam at the Turn of the 20th Century Abubaker
Tafawa, Sir Balewa, Abubaker Tafawa Balewa, Alhaji S. Balewa, Patricia Romero,
Shaihu Umar
-Written by the former president of Nigeria.
Tears of the Giraffe Alexander McCall Smith
Wonderful second book in the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series. Includes ideas of
gender, modernity, Africans (Botswana) history.
ASIA
ReOrient: Global economy in the Asian Age by Andre Gunder Frank
-Fundamental re-thinking of the West and origin of world systems
When China Ruled the Seas by Louise Levathes
-Account of Zeng He
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
-3 generations of Chinese women and Mao’s influence
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
-Japan’s geishas
Monkey by Wu Ch’engen
-Traditional folktales from the Ming Dynasty
When China Ruled the Seas Levathes, Louise
-A hundred years before Columbus and his fellow Europeans began making their way to
the New World, fleets of giant Chinese junks commanded by . . . admiral Zheng He and
filled with the empire’s finest porcelains . . . and silk ventured to the edge of the world’s
‘four corners.’
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World Weatherford, Jack
-In just 25 years, in a blitzkrieg, the Mongols conquered more lands and people than the Romans
had in over 400 years. Weatherford also devotes much attention to dismantling our notions of
Genghis Khan as a brute. By his telling, the great general was a secular but faithful Christian, a
progressive free trader, a regretful failed parent and a loving polygamous husband.
Nectar in a Sieve Markandaya, Kamala
-Rukmani, a peasant woman from India, lives a harsh life, full of many struggles. She
never loses her faith in life or her love for her children even though she battles cruel
nature and desperate poverty.
Funny Boy Shyam Selvadurai
- A coming of age story about a young homosexual man in Sri Lanka told amidst
religious and political tensions in his home country and through his family’s forced
migration to Canada.
Silence Shusaku Endo
-This book of historical fiction takes place in Japan during the 1600s as the Tokugawa
Shogunate is attempting to assert itself as the central authority. In doing so all outside
influences will be eradicated, including Christianity, which had been introduced to Japan
by Western missionaries. This novel tells the harrowing story of those that were
persecuted for their beliefs during this era of Japanese history.
LATIN AMERICA
Don’t Be Afraid of Gringo by Elvia Alvarado
-Life of people in Honduras
House of Spirits by Isabelle Allende
-Chilean female POV
Imagining Argentina by Lawrence Thorton
-Late 1970s political, cultural, and social setting
Conquest in Paradise by Kirkpatrick Sale
-Dispels the myth of Christopher Columbus
Tree of Red Stars Tessa Bridal
- A coming of age story which takes place in Uruguay in the late 20th century. The
concept of human rights as universal claim (or not) comes through nicely here.
EUROPE
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
-Brutal depiction of life in a Stalinist camp
Life in a Medieval City by Joseph and Frances Gies
-Pleasing narrative…
Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield
-Historical fiction – Retelling of the battle of the 300 Spartans vs. the Persian army
Women in the Middle Ages by Frances Gies
-Varied roles of women during the medieval period
Currahee!: A Screaming Eagle at Normandy by Donald R. Burgett, Stephen E.
Ambrose
-A D-day paratrooper of the 101st recalls the nightmarish fighting
MIDDLE EAST
Forgotten Fire by Adam Bagdasarian
-1915-1918 story of an Armenian boy in Turkey
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
-Kabul, Afghanistan, early 1970s – the story of wealthy Amir and the son of his father’s
servant, Hassan
Dawn by Eli Wiesel
-Elisha wrestles with guilt, ghosts, and God in British occupied Palestine
A Woman of Nazareth, Hala Deeb Jabbour
-This is the story of a Palestinian young woman from the mid 1940’s to the 1980’s. It is in no way
balanced (it is biased!) but does provide an interesting perspective on gender, the Palestinian
situation and on modernity
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet
Invasion to September 10, 2001, Steve Coll
-This Pulitzer Prize winning book documents the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and Osama bin
Laden throughout the 1980s and 199s. The author uncovers the CIA’s covert operations to
combat communism, and discusses how the United States actually helped to fuel the evolution of
the Taliban and Al Qaeda.